Reporting right-wing populist governments in the EU: the news representation of Hungary and Poland in European leading press

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has traditionally been seen as a communicatively distant entity for most European citizens. After a strong integration, people’s evaluations of the EU in some countries and regions have moved to a negative approach. At the same time, there is a sort of populist wave grounded on the use of digital technologies. The economic and political elite, including the EU, is highly criticized through social media. In a conflictive context, this research aims to explore the news coverage of the relationship between the EU and Poland and Hungary. Using a content analysis, we analyze the posts on Twitter (X) referring to the heads of the Polish and Hungarian governments in the accounts of four leading European newspapers (The Guardian, Der Spiegel, La Repubblica, and El País). Our research examines the thematic composition of the tweets (news items) published in 2022-2023, collecting also which leaders are referenced and the level of interaction of the digital audience. The results illustrate the presence of the Ukrainian war on political and media agendas together with classic populist topics. They also show a greater attention to Poland, but with a strong focus on national politics. Hence, the news provision on the EU is associated with geopolitical communicative elements.